Sunday, July 22, 2018

How Meditation & Yoga Improved My Life.

Okay.. it might be a bit of an exaggeration if I'd say meditation and yoga have changed my life. But it definitely improved it a lot. I have never talked about this on here and don't know if I will go into this in depth any time soon, but I have anxiety which leads to panic attacks quite a lot. It has improved over the years and real panic attacks have become rare for me, thankfully. But that doesn't mean that I am not constantly worrying and being tense about every single thing in my and other's peoples life. Of course, this is not healthy for me and also doesn't help the people around me. So I have been looking into a lot of different techniques to help me being calm and living in the present.

Meditating

In the beginning of the year I finally gave myself the challenge of meditating at least 5 minutes every single day. I have to admit I didn't follow through with it completely. There have been some days, especially on the weekends and on holiday, where I skipped it. But I am proud to say that I pulled through with it during the week. Even on days where I feel like I have too much to do and I am not in the right mindset, I will do at least 5 minutes. The longest I have meditated for was 20 minutes up until now.

I know it looks and sounds easy. Just sit there and don't think about anything. But honestly it is so much harder and it is a real progress. In the beginning, you will feel like giving up a lot. You probably feel like a failure because your mind will wander all the time and suddenly you will find yourself thinking about tasks you have to do or the stupid thing you said yesterday. But this is part of the journey. Just think about your mind like a muscle. You have to train it. You won't be able to do 10 pull-ups the very first time you try it and you probably won't be able to have a blank mind for 10 minutes straight. I am definitely not there yet and I have worked on it the past 6 months. But don't be scared, there are different techniques to help you. Just look for it on youtube and you find loads.

Here are a few I tried:

1. Count to ten with each breath and then count backward again.
2. Accept your mind wandering and if you become conscious of it just see your thoughts as a cloud which passes over your head and let it go (until the next cloud comes).
3. Concentrate on your physical emotions such as feeling the air filling your lungs when you breathe in.

I use number 1 on days where it is very hard for me to focus. But trust me, even when you try to concentrate on the numbers your mind will still wander after some time. And again, that is totally normal. I personally feel like number 3 works the best for me.

I can honestly say that it hugely affected my anxiety. I feel so much calmer and I am more capable of calming myself down and staying present in stressful times. So give it a go.

Yoga

The second thing I implemented in my daily routine is yoga. I started feeling like I wanted to do something more physical which I can connect to my little meditation routine. So I just started doing yoga routines before my meditation. I looked up a few videos, mainly from Yoga With Adriene on youtube and honestly just gave it a go. There were a lot of things I couldn't do or I felt just weren't right for me. Now I sometimes try new routines and sometimes I just 'freestyle' it. I basically evaluate what I feel like doing and repeat some moves I learned in the videos. I also have to say that I am probably not doing yoga 'properly'. I mainly use it as kind of stretching routine. I feel like my muscles are constantly tight from going to the gym and sitting on my desk a lot. So I am always looking for new yoga stretching moves which I also mix in with 'normal' stretching routines. Honestly just listen to your body and you will know what feels right and what you currently need.

The fun thing with yoga is how quickly you see progress. You feel so much more flexible and suddenly you can do moves that were impossible for you before. That's so rewarding and motivating.

I really hope this post was a bit helpful and maybe inspired you to look into meditation and yoga/stretching. I honestly can't recommend it enough.. even if you only have 5 minutes to spare each day.

89 comments

Oh I can only agree to this! Yoga and meditation are my favorite ways to start or end the day. It really makes you focus on the important things in life and I like to power my body out with some Asana Yoga or mix it with Pilates. :) xx, Carmen - http://carmitive.com

I have heard so many positive responses of how mediation and yoga have improved so many people's lives, it makes them happier, more present, and way more productive! Since these are all things I value and try to have as much as possible in my life, it's kind of ironic that I haven't gotten around to really sticking with either of the two! I think in all honesty, it's because it would take time to do these things and I feel like I don't have enough time to do half the things I want to do already! However, I think if I do start doing these two things I will value time even more and get so much more done. I will have to follow your three tips on mediation. For a while I have been using the 5 Minute Journal by Alex Ikonn and Mimi Ikonn! Have you tried it because I would highly recommend it?! Yoga with Adriene is one of my favorite ways to do yoga when I do do it! Okay, that's it, I'm going to go follow one of her videos now. Thank you for that boost of inspiration Lisa and thank you for opening up to us about your anxiety and panic attacks. I hope you are having a lovely Sunday so far. xx

You are honestly the sweetest! I know you probably heard it already ten million times but you can always make time for these things.. it's just your brain telling you that you can't. Maybe just start with 10 minutes a day.. we all have 10 minutes to spare :)

I could never stand slow and boring exercise- I could only do HIIT workouts but after I injured my back I couldn't go back to my old routine. All I can do right now is yoga and I have to say I kind of fell in love with it all over again. Meditation also helps me a lot with my anxiety. So happy that both work so nicely for you, too. Such simple tools but can improve our lives so much. xx

Whilst I've never properly given meditation a go, yoga is definitely one of my favourite things to do! I've suffered from anxiety in the past and you can only do what works for you - and not be discouraged if what other people say works for them doesn't for you.

I've never been very interested in yoga and mediating just because I'm not the sort of person who can sit still. But, it was so interesting to hear about you're experience. I Just wish I could enjoy yoga now xx

I've heard so many positive things about both meditation and yoga and really want to start adding them to my routine so I couldn't have come across this post at a better time! After just reading this I feel a little calmer, it's so strange!Soph - https://sophhearts.com/ x

I've been working with meditation for a while as well. Some times it is, like you wisely said, not easy at all. Personally, I love a specific meditation known as "Root meditation", which I can wither guide myself or pull a video from YouTube with guidance. Another good option is to have really soothing music! I love pulling really calming music (for example BTS' piano version, it's so relaxing!) because it will help me clear my mind (it's what I also use for working when I am not able to do so)

I never tried yoga, but I am super curious about it! Thank you for the amazing post!

I've been meaning to try yoga for such a long time now, I could count it in years and for some reason I never really have yet. I have to implement more relaxation into my everyday routine. Thanks for this post, hopefully this time I will try yoga.Dorotawww.journalofdorota.com